god. president obama reaffirms washington's unbreakable bond with israel despite differences around nuclear problem while the west bank prepares to greet the u.s. leader with raging protests. a bull in a china shop russia's prime minister slams the e.u. over its handling of cyprus is economic turmoil in a cool welcome for the brussels officials who arrive in moscow attempting to calm the financial storm. and syria's government and opposition rebels both demand an international internet alleged deadly chemical attack that both sides are blaming on each other.

and i welcome you watching our take with me andrey farm. now a big talks over a tiny country moscow has become the focal point in efforts to overcome cypresses economic crisis e.u. officials arrive in the russian capital on thursday joining the separate finance minister who is already in town the ailing euro zone state is running out of time to avoid bankruptcy but pressure increasing from brussels after cyprus rejected preconditions for an loaned me moderate frosty welcome may be ahead for the delegation this article piece going off reports. russian authorities were already quite critical of the cyprus bailout plan proposed by brussels and the so-called troika of key investors which is aimed at taxing private bank accounts in the growing feet on wednesday prime minister dmitry mediator had some more strong words to say but. so far the e.u. together with the cyprus parliament have unfortunately acted like a bull in

a china shop i think all possible mistakes which could have been made in this situation have been made in fact the prime minister said that russia may have to start revising some of the economic womens' that it clearly has with the cyprus you also compare the situation with how the sort of union or surveyed of police dealt with private funds or sort of its citizens meaning the expropriation of private property of course and in general you did we did it said that russia is only in favor of a healthy. economy a transparent one and one which is effective and which is that which works but he said that this crisis has to be dealt with where the involvement not only of brussels and the troika but with all the players the fact that including russia of course in the meantime cyprus sun itself in a very difficult position it be jack to the bailout plan proposed by the troika has turned to russia. finance minister has been meeting with russian officials in

moscow throughout wednesday this speculation that cyprus is asking russia for a loan the finance minister said that there has been no official proposal yet but he promised not to leave the capital until an agreement is reached but the big picture is all of this is happening. despite angola merkel being furious over cyprus even talking to russia about the issue since earlier she directly called on the country not to even consult with anyone about its current economic difficulties except for brussels and the troika now the latest developments all are cyprus it's authorities are reserve reckoning another plan which. we were already presented earlier to european union authorities which we jacked it and that is to tap into social forms of the country including the pension fund and in this way we hope to collect around five billion euros pretty much the same amount which we would have got if we used the tax on private bank accounts while the european central bank

says it will have to cut cyprus off unless the island state gets a bailout soon. chairman of the bruges group which is nice because think tank believes the pressure on cyprus exposes a worrying hierarchy in europe. it seems that certain countries such as germany are really pushing their own agenda and those countries are small and can't really stand up to the larger interests in the your opinion the large financial interests of french and german banks are really pushed around and are and are bullied and do not get a good deal and this is very dark from the e.u. to try and take a percentage of the savings of the. banks which is actually we could argue that's actually breaching e.u. rules on protection taking deposits so it's actually very silly and it's also bullying and he's actually counterproductive because it's now threatening the whole banking system in southern europe because people see he's no friend of those who

have tapings in bank accounts he's no friend of protecting deposits and bank profits on what actually is really otherwise should be. well later today are things max kaiser gives his unique take on the cyprus crisis. they just keep blowing there's this chunks of vomit in people's face the people in cyprus are being knocked down with projectile vomit coming out of the mouth of of the e.c.b. and the i.m.f. christine lagarde is projectile vomiting into the face of the people of cyprus and saying it that cheer up and they're saying q m i did it environment and america proper just either christie and then the new york times all right what's the big deal i marry ross sorkin i don't see anything wrong here meanwhile he's sucking christie's vomit down as fast as he can.

the u.s. president barack obama is in israel seeking to see reaffirm washington's unwavering support for one of its key allies in a show of commitment to israel's security a bomb of that to prevent iran from obtaining. nuclear weapons but fail to offer any solutions the israeli palestinian conflict well arty's middle east correspondent paula slayer is in the west bank where president obama will head next and she joins us now paula. netanyahu haven't always seen eye to eye have they but what sort of common ground have they found so far do you think. well president obama certainly saying all the right things to the israeli public he's spoken about the importance of israel's security he's spoken about the close alliance between washington and tel aviv and he's also spoken about extending financial support to israel on wednesday night after he met with this way the prime minister benjamin netanyahu a bomber said that the goal of his visit was to talk with the israeli people no

mention of the palestinians no mention of the peace process or of continuous israeli settlement expansion in fact during his first address after arriving yesterday in israel and later after he met with israeli president shimon peres he did not talk about the palestinians at all now this is in shock in sharp contrast to the address he gave back in two thousand and nine in cairo where he said that one of the top priorities of his foreign policy agenda was the resolution of the israeli palestinian conflict and here in ramallah people are asking what exactly has happened to this it's no secret that a bomb in a time yahoo don't exactly like each other or see eye to eye and many people feel that this latest visit by the american president is nothing more than a p.r. effort but it doesn't ignore the fact that there is still a great deal of mistrust between the two leaders as was underlined in this comment by the israeli prime minister. membership. to others even to the greatest of our friends israel has no better friend than the

united states of america. what is also interesting is that syria has received more attention and then the decades old conflict between the israelis and palestinians and the american and israeli leadership have been focusing more on what is happening on syria than on this never ending conflict here right on their doorstep. given that what do you think that the palestinians can expect today when a bomb a head to the west bank. well late this morning thursday the american president will be here in ramallah for talks with the palestinian president mahmoud abbas of the palestinian prime minister salam fayad we don't exactly know what is on the agenda but i can tell you that palestinians are angry firstly obama is visiting israel palestine for three days but he's going to be visiting the palestinian leadership for just a few hours the rest of the time he is in israel he's not giving any kind of

address to the palestinian public which is later today he will be addressing the israeli public and then he will not be visiting the grave of the former p.l.o. leader yasser arafat that you see behind me where as he will be visiting the grave of the former israeli prime minister yitzhak rabin certainly the feeling on the palestinian street is that this is a visit by the american leadership that is a sign of support for the israelis and that it is ignoring palestinian concerns and palestinian issues at the same time a big issue here in palestine is that of palestinian prisoners who are currently on a hunger strike now today is the palestinian mothers day and the mothers of these striking prisoners asked for meeting with a bomb that was declined so certainly a lot of anger here in palestine and obama will have a lot of having to make up if indeed he's going to get the palestinians on his side ever again ok paula we do have to leave it there but thank you very much as artesia live from the west bank. well earlier i spoke to jeffrey

laurenti a senior fellow at the century foundation on international affairs about the apparent good cop bad cop approach between israel and the u.s. over iran he says netanyahu suggestion that israel might act without american approval is pure. certainly the prime minister netanyahu is trying to set the marker that the united states cannot hold him back indefinitely if you feel israel's security interests are at stake but this may very well legally a good deal of reviving old talk that he really in fact cannot act on that is. the reality is that israel cannot dare launch an attack against iran and be confident of having the united states nuclear to protect it from retaliation unless it has cleared this and work with the americans and made the case why such an

attack is just. a last resort and that he has not yet been able to do with the obama administration now ahead of a bomb his visit to the west bank artie's arabic channel sat down and spoke to the president of the palestinian authority and an exclusive interview says it's time for the u.s. needed to act on his words and put pressure on israel over a settlement expansion the full interview is coming up later today but here's a taste. in these statements president obama has repeatedly voiced his opposition to illegal learned. and we think he's right all the tremaine sees to translate words into action but i have always asked americans and europeans to tell me if there has been a single miscalculation on my part in domestic or foreign policies over eight years

well israel makes mistakes every day so why didn't you let them know. syria's government and rebels are both demanding an international probe into a deadly attack that both sides claim was was with the use of chemical weapons they've traded accusations as to who was behind the assault near the northern city of aleppo that killed up to thirty one people and wounded dozens of others were artesian in the blue sky is following the story and joins me now in the studio getting is there any sort of indication as to who might have been behind this attack and were chemical weapons actually used well that's the thing at this point there is no absolutely absolute certainty but we do know that reports indicate that chemical weapons have indeed been used in the han area of the aleppo province the details aren't clear at the moment but various witnesses do say that people have

been suffering from effects of what seems to be some sort of gas. well in the heart. i. assure. you here. where injured because of the. rocket. over. now who could be behind this attack the blame actually could lie equally with rebels or with president assad's forces but the rockets reportedly have fallen in areas controlled by the government syrian rebels have long tried though without success to overrun the weapons plant located in the very same area the aleppo province where at least some of the country's chemical stockpile is said to be stored and what they have failed to do before they could very well have achieved now in fact the syrian government said in december that rebel forces plundered

supplies of chlorine gas and some time ago a video was posted online purportedly showing how animals were killed with chemicals those behind the footage this one right here affiliated themselves with also the opponents and threaten to do the same with those who supported the syrian president get all of this evidence doesn't seem to convince president obama. deeply skeptical of any claim that in fact it was the opposition that used chemical weapons. now this was an interesting use of the word skeptical you see one of the biggest concerns for all in this scenario is where syria's chemical arsenal falls into the hands of extremists fighters among opposition forces as history has shown they are there have been examples when fighters have used arms supplied by the west against the suppliers themselves now let's for a moment imagine that extremists among the rebel fighters could get hold of chemical weapons we all know what the consequences could be we've seen images of

a chemical attack on a subway in a huge city in one thousand nine hundred five in tokyo by religious sect now imagine a similar scenario but staged by people with chemical weapons who were throughout the initial conflict in syria supported by the west so the entire situation andrew is really rather dangerous and should be really closely have paid attention to things you know. thank you. a top u.s. general says prison this hunger strike shows their frustration with the government's failure to shut down the facility rejecting reports there's a mass protest over the mistreatment and the desecration of the koran meanwhile the number of hunger strike is acknowledged by the pentagon has now risen to twenty five. it's more than one hundred. brings us the latest what we see here is a small protest in front of the white house one told them all has been out of the media spotlight for a while now you don't see much coverage on major u.s.

news channels even with the hunger strike going on there right now so these people are trying to draw attention to the detainees more than fifty lawyers representing the president sent a letter to defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help in that letter they said the participants health had deteriorated alarmingly and some had lost more than twenty or thirty pounds that is nine to fourteen kilograms medical experts say by day forty five participants can experience potential blindness and potential loss of hearing so what prompted these people to resort to such a desperate move. if you were. on the. you know what's the point of view i don't want to know that. you're right there are. all. completely oh as many of the detainees have come to believe in this what they say we've heard this from their lawyers that the only way out of guantanamo for them is in

a coffin in january department shut down the office that was working to close guantanamo more than half of those detainees are sitting there with papers from the clearing them for with yet with no hope that they're ever going to be free again the officials are certainly trying to downplay the hunger strike but they're pressed for answers and they sure know what's going on and what cost the strike in the first place marine corps general john kelly and it's his command that oversees guantanamo he was testifying in congress this wednesday he said the prisoners had launched a hunger strike because they're frustrated take a listen they had great optimism that guantanamo would be closed they were devastated when the president did you know backed off at least their perception of closing the facility that has caused them to become frustrated and they want to get this i think turned you don't get it back in the media this week the un commissioner for human rights responded to our inquiry and said they're aware of

the hunger strike and that they're trying to confirm the details in the same letter to human rights but he says they have quote repeatedly regretted that the u.s. government has not closed guantanamo bay on our part will continue to press for answers as the strike continues and involves more people in washington i'm going to check up. on our website we do have plenty more details on the hunger strike will you have these visit www dot com. this week a select group of u.k. war world war two veterans were awarded by prime minister david cameron for their service during the arctic convoys the convoys brought supplies to the soviet union in the fight against nazi germany last year london was criticised for rejecting moscow's offer to grant the british veterans a special award as an artist. reports feelings of gratitude a tinge with sadness and anger. a quarter of a million men took part in the arctic convoys over seventy years ago sadly today

just a handful of those brave men still survived after decades of campaigning the case convoy veterans are at downing street to pick up their new limited medals but launch a lot of projects will be worth it it's been a long more heated bridge between a wonderful day long time coming but tonight it's around one there will be a sadness as old boy ship might has crossed the bow. to die during the war ninety two year old vic bashford served in the royal air force as an electrical engineer am he was part of a secret operation that traveled on board the first stock to convoy to russia back in one thousand nine hundred forty one. urging mr drouet you to start a second ago but. into we're into prague to relieve the pressure on the russians mr churchill so we will thorough new some airplanes and we'll soon

you're going to fly them well so near the moon to the buying time and. by i will treat you and we will show new swaroop lines so that's how we came to to be in the in russia during world war two british ships transported around four million tons of supplies food and munitions for the soviet union more than three thousand sailors didn't survive the journey west subzero temperatures and german air raids were a fact of life on earth. on the rigging on the royals on the deck and you got this crash. on the frogs and of course you got the die after die out of there so you can be a bit frightening last year the british government came under fire for blocking veterans from receiving a special commemorative award from the russian government that medal was to be

awarded as a symbol of gratitude for all that british veterans did to help the soviet union during the darkest days of the war and with whom we went to once who was yet despite the opposition of m.p.'s the foreign office blocked the move saying the fight against nazi germany happened too long ago for the men to be recognised effectively leaving some veterans to die without recognition for their service and the thanks they deserved i think it's disgraceful absolutely disgraceful that the we were not the commode humans and the austro humans are those that ruined the american. dollar though been a war movie except one of us normally already knew the russians he was insulting to us. so this arctic star is a. little. soft. if you're.

not with the pride that i would. the russians. for those who braved the arctic waters and served their country all those years ago it's a day of celebration shaking hands with the prime minister followed by a reception on the h.m.s. belfast with their arctic stars in tow but for many it's a celebration that's left a bitter aftertaste for the owner that's come too late for those who could still wear at. r.t. london i'll be back with more news for you in about thirty minutes time and next though we will take a look at everyday life in iraq a decade after u.s. led forces invaded the country the posts of that.

world. science technology innovation all that is developments from around russia we've got the future covered. clear image of iraq story a. trip through the country. roads. clear evidence from north to south. the roots of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace.

we are facing a lot of problems in the. because no one thought to drink no good schools.

when you are. what's not enough wealth is a law in the local needs you might want to community l.n.g. most will be used. to give to dunford for up artist i was fights about how much fights. all fights. arrived.

and. i. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images.

from the streets of canada. operations are.

visiting the general hospital in fallujah is like living it was a nightmare. children with two heads toomas malformations missing limbs. and macao been unbearable literally they say every family here is sheltering or hiding a deformed monstrous child. all of them. get away and the grandmother you know my daughter cries all day long it but she hopes to see her daughter get better. but.

i deeply affected i leave the city with its newborn monsters. we head for baghdad on the banks of the tigris. to. baghdad can be translated as the garden of peace. but it's a better fragile peace the patrols or iraqi wearing uniforms supply. the army is divided by political religious and tribal conflicts everyone fights for his own camp. the president is kurd the prime minister shia and the parliament is run by sunnis. in paradise square.